blind lilt to donald trump. that doesn't explain the $4 million in tax evasion that actually had nothing to do with donald trump. that was his taxi business. >> yeah, and, you know, there's this lingering question about what it is he did not want to talk to prosecutors in the southern district of new york about. and there's lingering questions that we have lots of sort of trailing ends about, but no real answers yet what exactly haefs able to tell prosecutors about donald trump and russia during the campaign. donald trump is apparently implicated in a whole lot of that stuff if open source reporting is true. we have nothing about what he was able to tell prosecutors about that. >> well, that's why we have to be patient. >> my least favorite thing. >> yeah, i know. thank you, rachel. >>> well, in the michael cohen case, donald trump has much more to worry about now than just michael cohen. trump defenders in washington including some republican senators have been saying they can't believe donald trump committed c

and handed donald trump a win. and i don't think they handed donald trump a win. last week he said he would own it. the fact is the senate passed, republicans passed a clean resolution. the president can't get votes in the senate. i think the american people are disgusted with this kind of leadership. go. we shouldn't -- we can't do a bad compromise. i don't think nancy pelosi is in a bad place, she will reopen the government the day she gets elected speaker. mike: you been in washington long enough, what is the way out of this partial shutdown? >> i haven't been to bed yet. senior leaders need to get in the room. what i want to say to everybody is we can all talk and we are all frustrated and i will be in washington the second we have something we can vote on but you read the washington post this morning, you read about the woman who is a grandmother that cleaned offices at the state department who can't by her grandchild a christmas present. or in the last hour, the tsa officers who aren't going to get paid, don't know when they are likely to get paid down the r

motivation for donald trump. but i think anyone that works with the trump organization knows that all you have to do is show up with a sack of cash and plop it on his desk and he'd do business with you. that's how trump university got started, how he got soho built. clearly one of the pieces of information for prosecutors is felix seder. nonetheless, these sort of statements in that document get to the kind of horse trading that people are curious about. why did donald trump treat vladimir putin with kid gloves in helsinki? what did they talk about when they met alone in helsinki? what was trump going to get beyond, you know, just getting elected president if he was going to try to engineer the lifting of sanctions against russia? money is an obvious answer. and i think it's even more important in the context of what we know about the run-up to the general election, which is that trump didn't think he was going to win. and none of the people around him thought they were going to win. everybody in the trump univer

trump because he worked for donald trump even though he said should trump run was independent of donald trump. >> but in 2011, the fec ruled in cohen's favor. for michael cohen, the win was another way of proving his loyalty. >> the way he initially described it to me was a father/son relationship and when i asked him why he has blind loyalty, he also threw the question back to me as, would you do this for your father? >> the end of the day, the only people donald trump really considers as family are his own family. anyone who considers himself to be almost a trump family member, should really take a reality check. because they tend not to stay around very long. >> but michael cohen did stay and proved his willingness to fight for his boss by aggressively attacking donald trump's enemies, real or perceived. >> now to a war of words between a beauty queen and organizers of the miss usa pageant. pennsylvania's representative claims that competition is rigged. >> just after the 2012 miss usa pageant, which was co-owned by donald trump contestant sheena mown claimed the pageant's finalists

if donald trump -- okay, let's say donald trump had taken $150,000 or 15,000, pick a number, of his own money and decided to run it through michael cohen to buy ads on television and didn't want to tell anybody, would we be upset, would we be trying to impeach him right now? he used the money to benefit the campaign. it's not what he did was wrong, it's what he didn't report was wrong. so this conspiracy -- you're making up -- every campaign has almost -- almost every campaign for president, i think every one but mine in 2012 had a reporting violation. does that mean they defrauded themselves in running? no. does it mean they had a conspiracy? no. people don't report things. i believe the president on this one that it's michael cohen's fault for not actually telling him, by the way, you have to report this or you might want to think about reporting it. not the president's fault. >> kiersten? >> well, it is a conspiracy actually. you know, when you have -- there are three people involved, you know, we're talking about between the two women. and so this was -- and it was meant to be hidde

when they had that saddam-like talk when donald trump came into power, he didn't praise donald trump at the table. he praised the opportunity to serve the men and women of the armed forces. he did the same thing at the end of this letter and did not sign it respectfully or sincerely or anything, which shows you what he feels about donald trump. more importantly, he understands donald trump fundamentally does not believe in american power in our alliances that have been established since world war ii, principal principally, the atlantic alliance of nato. he does not believe in it and donald trump and accolades like steve bannon. believe the world should be brought down to a series autocracies and should not maintain the power and alliances that nato and the atlantic alliance does and that's dangerous. >> a very specific note. this resignation by the secretary of defense comes after the trump administration for donald trump surprised everyone by announcing a complete withdrawal of our troops from syria, which for a lot of americans, may seem like a vague thing, but it's actually pretty

involved donald trump to the point that donald trump was named an unindicted coconspirator in the case where michael cohen pleaded guilty for the first time. and so there in that tweet is the president of the united states saying that if you give special prosecutor robert mueller information against the president, you should be punished as severely as possible. you should serve a full and complete sentence. richard nixon would not have dared say something like that publicly because richard nixon did not believe that america had lost its legal mind or that the congress had lost its legal mind. also today donald trump tweeted, bob mueller who's a much different man than people think don't want the truth, they only want lies. the truth is very bad for their mission. count 4 of article i of the articles of impeachment passed against president nixon said that president nixon should be impeached and removed from office for quote, interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the department of justice of the united states, the federal bureau of investigation, t

for donald trump. he pleaded guilty to lying to wrong gross and is part of his plea deal has been cooperating with the ongoing special counsel investigation and we have had the sentencing document from robert mueller which reveals some very important developments and information about that investigation and just to remind viewers, the investigation is looking into whether the trump campaign colluded with the russian government. one of the biggest takeaway series that these documents as, the defendant michael cohen, lied about a business project called the moscow project, a plan to build a trump tower in moscow and one of the biggest ta keaway moscow and one of the biggest takeaway is in that is that it says here the defendant, michael cohen, admitted he lied to congress in order to minimise links between the time —— the trump tower project and interviewed —— individual one. individual one in these documents is donald trump. this document is implying that michael cullen lied to protect donald tr

what are the implications for donald trump? >> just because someone pleads guilty to a crime does not mean that a crime has been committed. michael cohen was president of this plea agreement based on a very expansive and aggressive interpretation of the campaign-finance law. even if you accept michael cohen and the prosecutors version of the events that does not mean that the president committed any offense and in fact when you look at the prior precedent on this issue and the underlying statutes, the whole issue is whether or not something was done for the purpose of influencing an election and in this case and others that have been part of this chain of cases it is clear to see this action could have been taken irrespective of the election and that is the key legal issue for the president going forward. >> one of those being prior presidential contender john edwards. what happened in that case? >> the court did not hold that up because john edwards was able to make the case with his lawyers that he would make that expenditure

speak after donald trump today. that role was played by mitch mcconnell. let's listen to how the trump defense lawyer tried to clean this up. >> the president says he's willing to take full ownership of a government shutdown. how does that sit with you? >> well, i hope that's not where we end up. i understand it it was a rather spirited meeting. we all watched. but i'd still like to see a smooth ending here and i haven't given up hope that's what we'll have. >> mitch mcconnell wants a smooth ending, chuck schumer wants a smooth ending, nancy pelosi wants a smooth ending, there will be a smooth ending, right? >> it's like a fight club. if you don't want to shut down the government, you doeshlt talk about shutting down the government. you never want to be the person shutting down the government. there is a moment in the meeting today where you can just tell. you played the clip earlier. that schumer cannot believe, he can't believe he just got donald trump to say, i will shutdown the government. that will be all me. t

donald trump had to sit in that front row today with the other presidents, with donald trump drowning in the countless humiliations he has brought upon himself as president including recurring proofs that he is the most ignorant president in history. donald trump had to sit there in the front row of the national cathedral covered in the humiliation he has earned thanks to stormy daniels' description of his pursuit of her and the federal criminal case in which donald trump is named as an unindicted coconspirator for arranging illegal payments to stormy daniels. it's hard to know which of donald trump's many humiliations weighs on him the most. but today sitting in that front row with president obama on a day when michael flynn is once again dominating the headlines, it must have been extra painful for donald trump that barack obama was sitting in the i told you so position on michael flynn. where would the trump presidency be today if donald trump was smart enough to have followed barack obama's advice and not hire michael flynn as his national security advisor? leading off our discuss

when you compare george bush and the bush family to donald trump and the donald trump family, that is so stands out. george bush was all about public service. he was a world war ii hero. he was shot down during the war. his whole life was about public service and serving the public good. >> they had humility. >> as john f. kennedy said don't ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. the bushes lived that through. the trump family is all about how much money can we make off of their businesses. that is the biggest problem we are facing right now with donald trump and that's why he should not be in office. >> this is an issue and there are a lot of people that say it's a lot happening. these are men who had faults as well. you are comparing him to president trump to ignore a lot of that because of what he is is describing. his approach to public service, his approach to the job that he did. >> there is a conversation he had about character and who they were and that's conversation to be had about what they did. those things overlap of course. i'm never g

trump, and a 6 foot tall portrait of donald trump. donald trump spent a combined $42,000 of charity money on those items. but now the foundation values them at just $975. joining our discussion now, washington post reporter david farenthold who won a pulitzer prize. and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were times when he was in front of the big crowd sort of playing the role of rich guy in the room. he overpays for these items. $12,000 for the signed tim tebow helmet. 42,000 combined for the portraits of himself. it's great for charity auctions. but he uses his charity's money, he's buying assets for himself using the money from a theoretically independent charity. that's where you get into trouble. and

expert care for every new beginning. >>> trump enomics are closing in on donald trump in a way that would be really funny if it wasn't so mad for the united states of america. candidate donald trump lied his way to the presidency, and one of the big lies he told is what he would do as president about the national debt. >> we'll start reducing our debt and reducing it bigly, which i want to do. and we're going to knock it down and we're going do it bigly and quickly. we're going to stop our deficits. we're going to stop our deficits. i'm really good at it. who's better at debt than i am? is there anybody? we're not going to be increasing our debt. >> he increased the debt by a lot. the debt has increased dramatically. donald trump has taken it from $19 trillion up to $21.7 trillion, and it's going up from there. the daily beast is reporting that president trump was shown projections of the national debt in his first year in office and he said he didn't care about it. and then there is the trade deficit, which is also now worse than ever after donald trump ran a presidential campaign promis

>> very clear donald trump would like to fire him or consider him. i wonder if people like mick mulvaney saying they are trying to not do it. how the legislation reads it is possible he will do it and can do it but we are putting a lot of emphasis on one man and what he is doing in the american economy is strong. it is going to take a sign but eventually there will be a new chair if he were fired and things would go along and there would definitely be some volatility in the meantime but eventually things would flatten out. >> another area, we saw the president hinting he would get out of syria and afghanistan. this is how he should do it and he did it. i worry that even though people around him say he wouldn't go that far, it would be so extreme, eventually the president will do what he wants to do, he threatens to do something and when he think he made a decision not to do what he does it so i'm worried. >> i don't think he will do it for the simple reason the president does what he wants to do and anyone else can take a hike but the economy matters

heather: donald trump has to get a new defense secretary. in terms of people he's looking at what qualities will he be looking for first? >> whoever he picks the person should share largely his views on foreign policy and domestic policy to a certain degree when you start talking about the wall. think about alliances and how alliances serve interests and other interests, he talks about rooting out terrorism at its source and having no in during the forever wars that lead to nationbuilding and talks a lot about building up the budget so that we can compete on the international stage with russia and china and when you look at that and he wraps together defense and trade together because they were mutually supporting of each other. whoever he picks should have a holistic view and advanced the president's wise policy. that he enacted over the last couple years and in a strategic fashion. heather: it became clear general mattis had a different vision when the president announced withdrawal of troops from syria. >> having served as secretary in a

. >> there's only been one chief of staff of donald trump. it's donald trump. it doesn't matter who he appoints. >> i was just going to say who cares, doesn't matter. >> that's a good friday sentiment to bring us out of this show. this is the who cares hour on msnbc. that does it for this hour. i'm john heilemann in for nicole wallace who will be back next week. god knows you're sick of me after only 57, 59 minutes. and i'm 36 seconds over which means chuck's going to be mad at me which is not the first time. but hi, chuck. how are you?

let's look at what donald trump had to say. we would save billions of dollars if the democrats would give us votes to build the wall. either way people will not be allowed into the country illegally, we will close the entire southern border if necessary, also stop the drugs. if we got funding for the border wall which chuck schumer said he would pony up 1.6, that is not for the physical wall itself but border security. donald trump once $5 billion and -- >> not enough. 43-25 billion to get a fully funded physical wall in many places as possible and the rest of the border secured the best we can. pretty amazing how democrats changed their tune including chuck schumer who voted for funding for the wall and border security and you have seen a lot of change not just because of funding the hard left, the grassroots. heather: who is in office, who is the president. >> and realizing with chain migration and other things, it will get them political power so you look at democrats they are doing this for political power and republicans o

trump, candidate donald trump. left on the outside, when he became donald trump, being sentenced to three years in prison. again, nine federal crimes he's being sentenced for eight of them, really, little or nothing to do with donald trump but personal financial crimes. the judge saying he may have taken advantage of his reputation, working for donald trump, high profile in manhattan working for donald trump for these greedy and also, lying to congress about trump tower business dealings in moscow, trying to sell a trump tower idea in moscow during the presidential campaign. that has ramifications so we'll keep our eyes on the pictures to see if michael cohen coels out. some of the attorneys here. here he is. let's see if he speaks. there you see michael cohen getting into the black car with his wife, his son and his daughter and driving off, choosing not to speak. that in and of itself, a big development in the sense that for years, for years, michael cohen threw punches for donald trump. no other way to put it. h

donald trump has to ask himself, do i feel lucky because think about how lucky donald trump is going to have to be to survive 17 investigations. donald trump has probably felt lucky most of his life, but he didn't feel lucky when his atlantic casinos went bankrupt and when he was approaching a trial in the trump university case which he avoided by paying $25 million to the former trump university students who accused him of fraud. so donald trump knows what it is to not feel lucky. but until now he did not know what it felt like to be the subject of 17 investigations. and he's certainly tweeting like a man who doesn't feel lucky. he's tweeting like a panicked president. think about those words together. a president of the united states who is panicking, a panicked president. but donald trump's strategy to try to prove to the world that he is not panicking is to send to send the strangest presidential lawyer in history on tv to say profoundly strange things. here is rudy giuliani trying to say -- trying to say that the president will not agree to an interview with the special prosecut

then i never thought donald trump would be president. if you told me when i started this show eight years ago the guy attacking the birtherism would be our president, i don't think i would have believed you. >> i don't think a lot of republicans would either. >> on that note of bringing up birtherism, i'm actually a kenyan born muslim and he was never at any of those meetings. obama. >> is that right? where were you when we need you'd to step forward? >> nobody asked. >> that does it for us. we've all had a lot of fun. i'd like to thank our panel. they've all been terrific. we've got to do. cue the orchestra, happy new year! i look forward to 2019 and more discussion, more debates and another chance to bring you the revvies. >> you've been watching the 2018 revvie awards. thanks for watching! have a happy holiday season. we'll see you next year. >>> this sunday, the climate crisis. >> brace yourself for dangerous heat. >> the drought we're in is disastrous. we ought to be worried about it. >> about everything we own was destroyed. >> thi

did putin buy donald trump? great to have you with us. let's start with your reaction to what we are hear federal government michael cohen. what are you taking away? >> watching him, he looked like he was so exhausted he couldn't tell a lie anymore. i think that it's very clear that the special counsel has the goods on donald trump as it relates to his involvement in trying to secure the silence of these two women. the tapes that michael cohen had in his possession that the special counsel was able to obtain probably have more than enough evidence and you have david pecker who says that he made that payment intending to assist donald trump in his campaign for election, and donald trump was in the room. so there's no question that donald trump knew about all of this. he was a one-man show. he's always been a one-man show. he had a small family company with about 50 employees. he knew precisely what was going on all the time. >> congressman, there's been two components to michael cohen's cooperation here. you have

trump, and a 6 foot tall portrait of donald trump. donald trump spent a combined $42,000 of charity money on those items. but now the foundation values them at just $975. joining our discussion now, washington post reporter david farenthold who won a pulitzer prize. and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were times when he was in and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were time

average trump voter actually knew a lot of this about donald trump. i don't think he knew he was hanging out at the "playboy" mansion because that's not covered on fox news. i'm not being sarcastic. that's where they get their information. rush limbaugh is not talking about it. fox news is not talking about it. conservative blogs are not talking about it. i think to this day they probably don't have a full picture of exactly who donald trump has been over his life. i also think when it comes to sexual harassment, the average conservative voter typically tends to kind of roll their eyes at those kinds of things and they don't tend to take it that seriously. they do take affairs a little more seriously so if it came out that he had had these affairs, you know, one of them, at least, while his wife just had a baby, maybe it would make a difference, but if it wouldn't make a difference, then we just get back to the fact of what's up with these voters, you know, that these things don't matter to them but they were obsessed with bill clinton's sex life? >>

i couldn't begin to articulate what donald trump -- where donald trump wants to bring us. so he has not done the hard work of convincing the american people that he deserves reelection and that's why you saw what you just mentioned in the last midterm elections, why the democrats won so decisively is because this presidency is in crisis. but, again, i would say it is not designed to work this way. we really have a government that's based on one word and republicans don't like to hear it and sometimes democrats don't, either, the word is compromise and you have to work with other people because it's a shared power of government, thank god, and you have to work with people and work with the american people to convince people the direction you want to go, and if you don't it dee involves into dysfunction and i think this is about as dysfunctional as it gets, but i think we'll survive it, too. >> and we will. the "wall street journal" this morning editorialized about the phoney shutdown, talking about how donald trump's, quote, wall isn't what america needs, it's not going to

there is also questions as to what donald trump would sign. they thought they had a deal which is why they put the bill on the floor the other night to fund the government through february. they passed it in the senate and the president blue a couple couple days later. shelby says the following. we would all have to have assurances the president would agree to what we agreed to and he will sign it. sunday seems to be the operative day when they hope to have some gravity around an agreement and maybe try to bring members back sunday night or early christmas eve, they did this in 2009 on the first vote to push obamacare through the senate but if they don't get something then and i'm told by multiple sources on both sides that they are very skeptical of that scenario, this could be the 26, 27th or even last until january, some don't think this will solve this until next weekend. what they are fighting over is $900 million, which is pocket lint in washington dc money for border wall or border security. they are at $1.6 billion that the proposal is

but this is what donald trump is. the one thing that i keep coming back do is that, you know, he's wildly inconsistent. he often tells lies. but on in stuff, on foreign policy he has said from the get-go that he wants to pull back, that he believes america spends way too much overseas, that we're overextendsed, we're overinvolved and he wants to pull back. for two years, he was stopped in doing that by the people that had surrounded him. one of his greatest early triumphs during the first year in office was the very limited bombing campaign he had in syria where he took utah the runway of an airport. and that was done largely because he had people around him saying, you have to do this. but it's very evident and it's become clear as day now that he is now following his instincts on the foreign policy stage. and i'm with richard. i don't think it ends here. he has been stopped in pulling back our troop deployments in south korea. why do we go when there's no jim mattis to stop him from doing that? it's an interesting a

and donald trump jr. has said the same, including essentially under oath to congress. >> an e-mail exchange in which donald trump jr. infamously responded, "if it's what you say, i love it." the question has always been, did candidate donald trump know about that meeting before it happened? >> it's hard for me to believe that donald trump jr., in that seven o'clock, would not communicate with his father and say, dad, look what i got. >> so the mueller team appears to be looking at this in terms of attempted collusion. why did they agree to accept the meeting, what was the state of mind of the trump team, and they're also looking at it through the lens of obstructed justice. >> if the president had a hand, and it appears he did n, in drafting a false statement as to the true meaning of the trump tower meeting, then the special counsel asking, is this obstruction of justice? >> not long after the trump power sit-down, music publicist rob goldstone ended his working relationship with russian pop singer emin

. >> there's only been one chief of staff of donald trump. it's donald trump. it doesn't matter who he appoints. >> i was just going to say who cares, doesn't matter. >> that's a good friday sentiment to bring us out of this show. this is the who cares hour on msnbc. that does it for this hour. i'm john heilemann in for nicole wallace who will be back next week. >>> citizen cohen. let's play "hardball."

la fundaciÓn de donald trump sirviÓ como una chequera para los negocios e intereses polÍticos de donald trump, incluyendo la interacciÓn ilegal con la campaÑa presidencial. la fiscal buscarÁ la restituciÓn de 2.8 millones de dÓlares que fueron donados a la fundaciÓn y fueron utilizados para la campaÑa presidencial. " seguiremos con esta humana saber que la fundaciÓn de donald trump responde ante la ley federal ". ilia: se pedirÁ que donald trump ni sus hijos les prohÍban crear o participar durante 10 aÑos en fundaciones sin fines de lucro. esta es una victoria importante. jorge: la casa blanca sugiriÓ que presidente donald trump podrÍa dar marcha atrÁs en su amenaza de cerrar el gobierno federal, si es que el congreso no prueba los $5,000,000,000 para la realizaciÓn del muro. el lÍder de la mayoría republicana dijo hoy que estÁ seguro de que no habrÁ cierre. sin embargo, los demÓcratas han rechazado propuestas de los republicanos y el cierre puede ser algo posible. un grupo de con esta federales exigiÓ hoy una investigación independiente sobre la lÍnea guatemaltec

and donald trump jr. has said the same, including essentially under oath to congress. >> an e-mail exchange in which donald trump jr. infamously responded, "if it's what you say, i love it." the question has always been, did candidate donald trump know about that meeting before it happened? >> it's hard for me to believe that donald trump jr., in that circumstance would not communicate with his father and say, dad, look what i got. >> so the mueller team appears to be looking at this in terms of attempted collusion. why did they agree to accept the meeting, what was the state of mind of the trump team, and they're also looking at it through the lens of obstructed justice. >> if the president had a hand, and it appears he did, in drafting a false statement as to the true meaning of the trump tower meeting, then the special counsel asking, is this obstruction of justice? >> not long after the trump power sit-down, music publicist rob goldstone ended his working relationship with russian pop singer emin agal

. >> right after donald trump became elect donald trump, the called advice and recommendations. it was going to serve as the chief of staff to the white house? that's an important decision. there were only a couple of candidates. joe called me and said we never met with steve at all. could you arrange at the trump tower, they were going to speak with then-president donald trump. they sat with mr. trump and recommended that he become -- >> can talk to? these newspeople, no host, they were analysts, opinion people and newspeople, is it thought they would call you and say, we want a meeting with the president to give advice? i've not done that. i'm a news reporter. i would love to have a meeting with the president. i wouldn't presume to be giving advice on matters. how did that come about? >> outside, crazy world of politics, the people that you talk to in front of the camera, sometimes where the most difficult to work with, are your best friend off-camera. it was not uncommon for personalities, from across the board, right center, left, called me and said i've got recommendations.

and donald trump, jr. were also working to make donald trump moskow a reality. joining me now a former district attorney for the southern district of new york, and joyce vance, a u.former northern district attorney. what do you see legally for the family? >> i think you could put it into three different. you've got the big unknown, which is what their role was in what we've been calling collusion. and your right to point out that michael cohen's indictment and his criminal information references his connection to trump tower. but bob mueller is not investigating trump tower moskow. he's not investigating the trump organization. he is investigating russian collusion. and there has to be a materiality component to these false statements. so they have to have influenced mueller's investigation. so the big question is how does the trump tower moskow connect with russian collusion? that sort of remains open. and then there's this issue which connects them to a little bit, and particularly don junior in that jun

that person was donald trump. that means donald trump committed two felonies. you have campaign financing, it is not just the issue that will drop but a handful. >> the house will have little choice the way this is going. but to start impeachment proceedings. heather: the clinton and donald trump had run-ins with the elections committee, where was the outrage? joining the senior legal fellow for the heritage foundation, thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. let's take a look at the sec complaint for president obama. he was signed $375,000. he missed the filing deadline, he did not prompt the refund, $1.36 million in excess contributions. that seems like a big deal. >> one of the biggest civil penalties the sec ever imposed but nobody said he needs to be impeached for doing that. what makes this worse is the supposedly campaign-finance violations the us attorney's office and southern district of new york intimidated michael cohen to plead guilty, isn't considered a violation of campaign-finance law by many former commissioners. how do we know that? the one

donald trump's campaign manager is in jail for committing crimes. shannon: not connected to russian collusion. >> not to mention the fact you have a national security adviser as acting attorney general, the obama administration, don't hire this guy. he is not a good boy scout and the acting attorney general said we have information that said this individual would compromise the white house, he did compromise the white house because he lied to the vice president of the united states and 18 days for him to resign and number 2. he lied to the fbi. heather: i am going to bring elizabeth, gentleman. elizabeth, i want to bring you back in because as one of our legal eagles, everybody is claiming credit for victory based on what we don't know behind these reductions. top democrats moving in as the house is taken over by democrats, the recommendation of no jail time for flynn is obvious irony chanting locker up, the timeliness that most details, far more than we or the president may know. is that how you read this? >> i don't think that is a fair interpreta

then he names donald trump, a blind loyalty to donald trump. he says, that is what led him to choose darkness over light. and love of my wife, son and daughter. he says is the key focus right now urgs and he is talking about the undeserved pain and shame on his family, and again, these are p powerful words, and as we have been discussing the judge is going to likely determine that there does need to be some level of a jail sentence, and what are you anticipating, and do you think that we have learned anything new factually today, elliott? >> doesn't sound like it. we would have heard about it, and respond to the blind loyalty part, because to this, it is silly. because he saying that it is blind loyalty that led him to do it, but it is his connections to donald trump that enriched him and holding out to other people that he had proximity to the president of the united states or the president of the united states that got him richer -- >> sorry to interrupt you and quickly, we are hearing that he was sentenced. michael cohen, the president 's fo

it seems there are many who would like to see donald trump go down the impeachment road. watch several channels they say it is a done deal. the media fueling the fire, some examples from the host of fox news media buzz, howard kurtz. >> reporter: prognosticators taking their criticism of donald trump to new heights as the investigations feet up. >> we never seen a president of the united states who actually acts more in some ways like a common grifter. >> reporter: even respected president of historians are less measured when it comes to this one. >> it happened since the 1850s and that didn't happen too well in the civil war the 6000 people died in. he might resign. >> if in fact donald trump knew about the russian efforts on his behalf, there is a live question about whether he has been giving aid and comfort to the enemy, the definition of freedom in the constitution. >> judge andrew napolitano says trump may even have been named in a sealed indictment. >> he might already be an indicted co-conspirator. >> we don't know what has been seal. >> reporter: michael cohen ar

of donald trump's defenses. his lawyer rudy giuliani struggling to answer questions in two sunday show appearances. and the president himself sounding more like a jilted mob boss than the commander in chief. "the washington post" with this insight on the impact of the half dozen investigations on donald trump's psyche. quote, there has been one immediate impact on a president accustomed to dictating the country's news cycles but who now struggles to keep up with them. trump has been forced to spend his political capital and that of his party on his defense. the president with some remarkable tweets over the weekend like this one. quote, remember michael cohen only became a rat after the fbi did something which was absolutely unthinkable and unheard of until the witch hunt was illegally started. they broke into an attorney's office. why didn't they break into the dnc to get the server or crooked's office? and this one slamming his former attorney general jeff sessions. jeff sessions should be ashamd of himself fo

we are going to win because donald trump is not backing down. this is going to be one of the defining issues of the next two years heading into 2020, the democratic party is going to engage in self immolation. donald trump is fighting for working people and fighting to restore the borders around this country that are the essential ingredient for national sovereignty and national success in a way nobody has held that office not only in my lifetime but frankly in the history of this country. heather: the fbi missing its deadline to hand over documents on the home of the clinton whistleblower, this comes as congress digs deeper into allegations of pay to play schemes at the clinton foundation. it is great to have you with us. >> reporter: nice to see you, good morning. the justice department and fbi under fire for missing a crucial deadline to hand over documents, the senate judiciary committee demanding more information after 16 agents raided the home of whistleblower dennis kane last month who gave the doj inspector general documents that prove o

that's donald trump. third. cohen provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected with the white house during the 2017/'18 time period. this is a whole new area that at least as far as i'm aware no one knows about. the fact that they are looking into the behavior of the white house in 2017 and this year? i mean, maybe that explains our earlier report of why they were investigating or interviewing general kelly, who only joined the white house in august of 2017. final area. fourth. cohen described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, which were false, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements contained within it. but what is really significant here, i think, is that cohen told mueller's office about more contacts between trump's orbit and its -- it appears trump himself and russia. and that's why we're here. that's why we care about michael cohen. that's why we care about robert mueller. because

another little dig to donald trump there. >> is it more evidence that donald trump is the most divisive president in recent history? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> not that complicated. >> she's nhe's not even capturi own side. you have half the people that have voted for you. his own voters have abandoned him. >> he's got a side but it's not that big. >> she should be. i was reading her book. it's marvelous. >> it's an amazing book. >> we're going to take a pause and let's take our last break. we'll be right back. and let's take our last break. we'll be right back. is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. the meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. whoooo. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the l

donald trump is snow n donald trump is not just cornered. he's a man in a room with no doors. >> and i surmised months ago that he would start a war potentially as a deflection. is that something that is in the realm of possibility given what we've seen and what are the options for those still standing? >> well, i always felt that jim mattis would stand in the way of that kind of wag the dog scenario. i do think this puts a lot of pressure now, personally, on mike pompeo and john bolton and gina haspel. they're going to have to speak truth to power. this is an erratic president. he's done real damage this week. he is on the side of the anti-democratic populous in europe, not on angela merkel's side. he's unraveling our immigration and refugee system, so carefully worn worked out over the last half century. look at what he's done in making the eu a competitor. this is turning years of foreign policy on its head. and i think gina haspel and john bolton and mike pompeo need to summon the courage to tell the president we are heading in the wrong

there to protect donald trump. it was a way for donald trump to plant stories about the campaign b-ted cruz, for example, when he felt threatened by somebody or media personality, for example, they might put a story in the national enquirer. we have one more line from the interview of michael cohen which should be very chilling. michael cohen saying of donald trump quote i will not be the villain of his story. in other words, i was blindly loyal forever as he said to george stephanopoulos. i said the right things. i'm not doing it any more. as you point out i turned over everything i know from 30 years to the special counsel's office. >> sure did. david ignatius, think back to that 2016 campaign. think back to the convention. now look at all the people who are in jail, indicted, who pled guilty. there are no parallels. certainly didn't see this until nixon was run out of office. everybody going to jail. and it seems that the legal grip is tightening even more around this president. can he survive? >> there's such a